World Briefing | Europe: France: Imam Can Be Expelled

By Craig S. Smith (NYT)

Published: October 5, 2004

France said that it would finally expel an outspoken Algerian Muslim cleric who embarrassed the government earlier this year by winning a court suspension of an earlier effort to deport him. The initial expulsion to Algeria of the cleric, Abdelkader Bouziane, imam of a mosque in V?ssieux, a Lyon suburb, came after a French magazine quoted him saying that stoning is an appropriate punishment for adulterous women, though the government has said its action was based on the cleric's terrorist sympathies. Mr. Bouziane quickly won a court suspension of the expulsion and returned to France. Yesterday, the country's top administrative court overturned the suspension, allowing the government to proceed again. France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe, has deported many Muslim clerics in the past year as it tries to stop the spread of radical Islam. Craig S. Smith (NYT)